Star Wars: Rise Above (Chapter 1)
by Samzan35
Summary: Five years before the events of Star Wars Episode 1, we follow the life of a teenage boy, Dral Casthur, who lives in the lower levels of Coruscant. He spends most of his days searching the lower levels for artifacts or anything of use. He and his friend are thrown into an unexpected adventure when they go digging into a closed off level of the planet.


"Dral, get in here!"

Dral awoke in a panic. The deep and powerful voice of his father echoed in the metalic halls of their home. His voice traveled through the hall and into Dral's cramped room. If you could even call it that. his "room" was just a small section of old cargo containers fused together that made their home. A typical home on level 1650 of Coruscant. Dral and his father had built it after they were forced out of their old home on level 1843. There wasn't much to his room, a small desk in the corner, his bed, a container for all his clothes, and a big mirror Dral found on level 1782. You could find good stuff down on the lower levels. Once, Dral even found an old blaster on level 1325.

"DRAL!" his father's voice echoed through the halls again.

Dral jumped out of his bed and put on his boots. He ran down the narrow hall into the kitchen. his father stood in front of a mirror. His long wiry beard has been combed down. He had slicked what little hair he still had straight back and he was wearing a clean shirt. He was tucking in his shirt when Dral came around the corner.

"I'm going to be out tonight, I want you to make sure you lock the door once I've left. You got that?" He turned to check his hair in the mirror.

"Yes father." Dral responded quickly, "Where will you be?"

His father didn't stop fixing his hair.

"I'll be going to The Yosh Pond on level 2971. I will be accompanying my boss, Mr. Deruk."

Dral's father worked at the garbage disintegration plant on level 1997 his father's boss must have been the worst Gran in all of Coruscant. Dral's Father always told Dral of how Mr. Deruk would treat his employees. Once he even had one of his employees thrown into a garbage disintegrator after he was seen stealing equipment from the plant.

"There." his father turned around to face Dral. "How do I look?" He said raising his chin up high and standing up straight.

His shirt formed tightly around his plump torso and his pant legs ended two inches above his ankle, exposing his yellow stained socks.

"Great." Dral said with a grin.

"Good, now, I won't be home for a little while. I don't want you to leave the house and go out and do whatever it is you young teenagers do. Got it?" His father said while stepping towards the door.

Dral picked up his coat and handed it to him. "Yes father. I was going to work on my turbothruster anyways."

Dral's father nodded his head as he pulled the front door open.

"Don't forget to lock the door behind me." He said before stepping out.

The door slammed down and Dral dropped the lock bar over the door. Dral stood there and grinned. He had been waiting for a night when his father would be gone. Dral ran back to his room and grabbed his bag. He threw in his headlamp, a jacket, and two comlinks. He jumped up on his bed and lifted a metal sheet on the ceiling to expose a hidden hatch. Dral installed it when his father was out a couple weeks ago. It opened up to a small crawl space Dral made between piles of junk that Dral and his father cover their home with to make it a little harder to find. Around these levels of Coruscant, if you have a somewhat nice and functioning home, someone might try and take it from you. Dral turned the valve and pushed the hatch open. He threw his bag up through the hatch and climbed up. He closed the hatch and picked up his back. Crawling through the dark and narrow crawl space, he made his way to a small open room. He moved a container over and squeezed through the tight opening. Once he was through, he moved the container back and climbed down to a platform. He jumped down and found himself in an old abandoned cantina. He walked through the hole in the wall where the front door once was and into an alley.

The alley was dark. The only light was from the dimly lit street lights that peeked through the openings of the alleys. The alley was narrow and the tall buildings stood high above the broken concrete ground. Dral turned right and walked towards the dim lights of the streets and catinas. As Dral made his way closer to the streets, the buzz of the night life hit his ears. Turning the corner onto the street, Dral could see the species that filled the area around him. Humans, grans, balosar, abednedo, rodian, and even a few devaronian. Music from the cantinas filled the air. Laughter rang out from a small gambling bar making Dral jump. A small group of rodians were whispering to each other as they tried to stay warm by a fire. Dral walked past the homeless aqualish that could always be seen trying to fend off muggers trying to take what little he had. Dral continued to walk down the street, passing catinas, clubs, apartments, brothels, and abandoned warehouses. He passed by a balosar and a human having a disagreement. From what he could hear, the balosar owed the human money. He continued to walk down the street pass a couple of prostitutes.

"Hey, got any credits? We can show you a good time." one of them said as he walked by.

Dral was mistaken to be a young man plenty of times. He was taller than most boys his age. He kept walking passed them without looking up. As he turned the corner at the end of the street, he heard a blaster shot behind him. He figured the balosar and the human altercation had heated up to the point where one of them shot the other. Dral picked up his pace and made it to the apartments.

He walked up to an EV-series supervisor droid that stood at the entrance of the apartment complex.

"Ah, Mr. Dral, here to see Mr. Zeil again?" He stated looking down at Dral.

"As usual EV, can you let him know I'm here." Dral said as her stepped up to the booth.

EV, nodded his rusted green head and turn around to the com system. Dral looked around while he waited for EV to finish. Dral got a weird feeling that someone was watching him. He turned around and looked down the street where he had come from. He could see a crowd starting to build up on the corner where he heard that blaster shot. He looked down the alley to his right. He could see a couple of rodians staying warm by a fire. He turned and looked down the street to his left. He scanned the street and the lines of buildings parallel to it. Looking up higher at the power lines that crossed between the buildings, he could see a hooded figure standing on top of one of the buildings. The figure was looking at Dral and didn't break it's gaze when he saw it. Dral looked back at EV who had turned back around to face Dral.

"I have notified Mr. Zeil that you have arrived. He told me he will be down here soon." EV said to Dral.

"Thank you EV." Dral replied as he looked back to the figure.

The figure was gone. Dral stepped a little closer to the booth EV was in.

"Is there something wrong Mr. Dral?" asked EV.

Dral looked at EV. "Did you see.."

Dral started but then realized how dumb it would have sounded. These streets had plenty of people around. The figure could have been a maintenance worker who had to fix an issue on the top of one of the buildings."

Sir?" EV asked with his head slightly tilted to the side.

"Nevermind." Dral said looking back to where the figure had stood only seconds earlier.

Then, a new voice came in, "Well, are we leaving soon or what?"

Dral looked over and saw Zeil. He was an old friend that Dral met while scavenging a little while back. He was a year older than Dral. He had medium length black hair and had it in a tight top bun. A lot of people would mistake them as brothers. The only difference between them was the eyes and their body builds. Zeil had green eyes with a charismatic smile and was a more of an athletic build than Dral. Dral was a smaller body build and his eyes were brown. Dral did have medium length black hair but he let his do what it wanted. I often sat down cover his ears. Dral was not as charismatic as Zeil. Zeil was able to charm his way out of any situation. And he had saved them a view times with the Coruscant Security Force. Dral was excited when father told him they were moving down to level 1650 because he knew Zeil lived here.

"Let's get going." Zeil said jumping the 3 steps that led to the entrance of the apartment complex.

"Bye EV." Dral waived as they walked down the street.

"Goodbye Mr, Dral." EV waived back.

Zeil turned towards Dral with excitement in his expression.

"You wouldn't believe what I found yesterday on level 1242!" he said as he started digging through his bag.

"You went down that far without me?" Dral said looking to see what Zeil was getting out of his bag.

Zeil tightened his grip on something and pulled out a blaster. Pointing it at Dral, he said in a mocking deep voice, "Stop in the name of the Coruscant Security Force."

Dral pushed it down and pushed Zeil back.

"Are you crazy! Don't point that at me! What if you accidently shot me?" He blurted out in a loud whisper.

"Relax. I really had you scared huh?" Zeil laughed.

Dral pushed Zeil into a nearby alley. "I just don't think you should be so reckless with a blaster. Especially in public."

Dral Inspected the blaster with his eyes.

"Does it actually shoot?" he said.

Zeil shrugged, "I'm not sure, I haven't had a chance to try to shoot it yet."

He handed it to Dral. The blaster was DL-3 blaster pistol, an old heavy pistol used during the time of The Sith Wars.

"This thing looks ancient." Dral said as he turned the blaster in his hand.

"Haven't you seen a blaster before?" asked Zeil as he reached for the blaster.

Dral pulled his hand and the blaster away from Zeil. "Of course, my older brother Jesral is in the Galactic Republican Army and he has showed me his blaster before."

Zeil reached for the blaster again. "Ok give it back, you're going to break it."

Dral jumped back "I'm not going to break.."

Suddenly, a Bothan stepped into the alley. Cursing at both the boys in Bothese, Dral slipped the blaster into the back of his pants.

"We are leaving." Zeil said picking up his bag.

The two boys scooted passed the Bothan that was standing by the opening in the alley. They passed and stepped back into the dimly lit streets.


End file.
